1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle mountable snowplow, in particular a snowplow having a dual purpose hydraulic arm.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical vehicle mounted snowplow has cooperating mounts on each the vehicle and the snowplow. Each of the mounts has holes which are brought into registry and secured by a locking pin. However, due to the weight of the snowplow, the holes are difficult to bring into registry manually. As such, a separate device, such as a jack or lever is used to lift the snowplow in order to align the holes. Even with the use of such devices, properly aligning the cooperating mounts typically requires a lot of physical effort on the part of the user.
An example of such device can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,174, issued Jun. 30, 1992 to Watson et al. The Watson device shows a detachable snowplow blade lift assembly including a mount frame permanently connected to the vehicle frame. The Watson device includes a pivotable lift stand to assist in mounting the snowplow assembly to the vehicle.
Other exemplary inventions, showing structural variations of plows and lift mechanisms, described in the patent literature include U.S. Pat. No. 3,464,129 (Blade and Moldboard Supporting and Adjusting Structure for Snowplows); U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,752 (Convertible Snow Plow with Auxiliary Ground Support); U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,895 (Lift Arm with Improved Chain Connector); U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,988 (Snowplow Quick Mount Lift Assembly); U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,296 (Snow Plow Attachment); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,261 (Quick-Hitching Device for Detachably Mounting an Attachment to a Vehicle Frame).
None of the above devices and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Therefore, a reduced shock snowplow with a hydraulically assisted mounting system solving the aforementioned problems is desired.